30,000 'little pigs' rally to support Taiwan presidential bid

About 30,000 people gathered in the streets of Taipei Saturday (Dec.10) in support of opposition leader Tsai Ing-wen's presidential campaign in a carnival-like event highlighting her “piggy bank” fund-raising gimmick.

Braving the cold and rain, the supporters rallied on Ketagalen Boulevard near the presidential palace, shaking piggy banks as they cheered on the chairwoman of the Democratic Progressive Party.

“Not only that you've come, your little pigs have also come,” Tsai told the crowd. “This is really a spectacular sight.”

The DPP has been giving out sets of three plastic piggy banks of different colors to supporters who will fill them with money they raise and send them back to the party to fund Tsai's campaign.

The fund-raising idea was inspired by the government watchdog Control Yuan's warning against the DPP accepting a piggy bank of monetary donations from a child, which would violate the law banning political parties from receiving donations from minors.

Piggy banks have since then become a major theme of the DPP campaign.

“The DPP hopes to use the power of the little pigs to overcome social injustice,” Tsai told the supporters at the rally, which the party said marked a return to the “mother's home.”

Tsai is seeking to unseat President Ma Ying-jeou, who ended eight years of DPP rule in 2008.

“The little pig movement has become a social movement in Taiwan. We will have the three little pigs topple the big monsters,” the DPP candidate said.

Tsai also defended herself from allegations over her family's investment in a government-funded biomedical firm, TaiMed.

She said her rivals are running a smear campaign against her by making the accusations over TaiMed.

“The big bad wolves ... have revealed their true faces,” said Tsai.